Posts tagged ‘road trips’

Sorry for the lack of fresh updates, these past few days have been a giant whirlwind of packing, driving, meeting with old friends, and other things. So here is a quick run-down: Tuesday morning Charlie cat and I made our way from Virginia to Ohio, braving things like thunderstorms, two-dollar tollbooths (without a FastPass transponder), and many mid-western people that do not know how to drive very well. I enjoyed myself quite a bit, as I love a good long haul but Charlie didn’t seem too pleased with the whole ordeal, and he let me know the entire way.

That night I saw one of my good childhood friends, Miss Burns. We had a lovely time at the Martini Lounge, even though I think she was slightly disappointed that I don’t drink. But it was fun to see her and I was very happy to do some much-overdue catching up.

The next day (today), I FINALLY had the meal that I had been dying to eat ever since I had last been in Ohio two years ago – A delicious Frisco Melt with fries and a Strawberry and Banana milkshake. Oh man, that was super tasty; like I was tasting Ambrosia in some delicious form or another. It makes me really wish that there was a Steak n’ Shake in Amherst.

After my meal I was scooped up by the ever-lovely Sarah and Aubrey, two more friends that I had grown up with. We decided that the day was ripe for a good swim in Lake Mohawk, but ended up in just being a friendly conversational wade into the recently-treated-for-blue-algae-ish water. When we were finished there we proceeded on a whirlwind tour of nostalgia and drove past my childhood home, where I am happy to say that my and my sisters’ playhouse still stands – complete with the paint cans inside of it that we had left there over five years ago. Awesome. 😛

The tour then ended at Aubrey’s house, where we met up with the gorgeous Dani (also known as 留美, or お姉ちゃん) and chatted for a few hours. We then headed out for some poking around and food at Giant Eagle (a regional grocery store chain, similar to a Harris Teeter or a Stop n’ Shop) before I returned to my father’s house around eleven or so.

Then I had the bomb dropped on me: I couldn’t finish my journey back to New E ngland until Saturday morning. Apparently, while my father was inspecting my car for things that were needing to be fixed he noticed that my emergency brake cables needed replacing in addition to an oil change and fixing a rear wheel cylinder. This would take quite some time to do, and thus I am here until all of those things are fixed. Good thing that I had left Charlottesville early, huh? XD

Pictures of the day:

My favorite meal of all time. So satisfying!

My old playhouse, complete with the paint cans left there more than five years ago.

After braving twelve action-packed hours of driving down the eastern seaboard through the dead of night, I have finally made it to Charlottesville and settled in somewhat. The whole trip is, in retrospect, just a giant blur with a few tiny but tasty morsels sprinkled in. The biggest of them all being the surge of disappointment that I felt when it turned out that there was not indeed a Steak n’ Shake restaurant of off I-95 in Maryland but what appeared to be a shut down imposter. I had been so excited for the past week or so in anticipation of sinking my teeth into a delicious Frisco Melt, but alas, I would have to settle for highway hashbrowns washed down with a nearly tasteless chai tea latte from the nearest service plaza. Oh,the disappointment.

The day did look up however, as soon as I had finally made it into Charlottesville with my trusty co-pilot Scott at my side. All of the paranoia of landing a decent sublet (not to mention the fear of being scammed since I found the place on craigslist and do not live anywhere near VA and thus could not see the place beforehand) was quickly dissipated as soon as I had taken the first step into my new digs. Everything was nice, spacious, and even cozy. My first housemate turned out to be a dream as well, seeing as I didn’t even know that I was going to have housemates until about a week ago.

But I digress from the main purpose of this blog, which is to keep a record of my research done this summer and the interesting findings that I may have. I am very excited about this summer and if the start of it is any indication of what is to come, than it is going to be a fantastic one. I start interning officially at the Jefferson Library either Thursday or Friday, so we shall see just how well this first internship will go! 🙂

Picture of the Day –

The messy, messy aftermath of having just unloaded the car after a 12-hour straight marathon from MA to VA. And Scott's head.